Bark removing machine having a peeling knife



June 5, 1962 H. o. RQSMER BARK REMOVING MACHINE HAVING A FEELING KNIFE Filed Feb. 19, 1959 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOB. HERMANN OTTO ROMER Maw? ATTORNEY.

June 5, 1962 H. o. RoMER 3,037,537

BARK REMOVING MACHINE HAVING A FEELING KNIFE Filed Feb. 19, 1959 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 N s Q 3 INVENTOR HERMANN OTTO R6MER ATTORNEY.

June 5, 1962 H. o. ROMER 3,037,537

vBARK REMOVING MACHINE HAVING A PEELING KNIFE Filed Feb. 19, 1959 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 /9 Fig.4

20 yl I ll '23 INVENTQR. HERMANN OTTO ROMER ATTORNEY.

June 5, 1962 H. o. RGMER 3,037,537

BARK REMOVING MACHINE HAVING A FEELING KNIFE Filed Feb. 19, 1959 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTQR. HERMANN OTTO ROMER ATTORNEY.

tates Unite The present invention relates to a bark removing machine having a peeling knife, which operates in accordance with the peeling principle and is preferably manually guided.

It is one object of the present invention to provide a bark removing machine having a peeling knife, wherein a driving motor operates a working rod which is subjected to a reciprocating movement by means of a drive. The drive which is disposed between the driving motor and the working rod is dynamically balanced out, for instance. by a weight piston which is disposed diametrically opposite to the working rod and reciprocated by a crank drive. This weight piston is of sufiicient mass to counterbalance the working rod and the tool secured thereto. The working rod carries at its free forward end the working tool as a peeling iron which is necessary for the working of the wood.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a bark removing machine having a peeling knife which uses either an electro-rnotor or an internal combustion engine as a driving motor. In the latter case it is of advantage to provide a coupling operated by centrifugal force, which coupling operates in such a manner, that the tool stands still at a low number of revolutions and is made operative only at a greater number of revolutions.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a bark removing machine having a peeling knife, wherein said machine is mounted on the work piece by means of a rocking lever. The rocking lever assumes the Weight of the machine by means of torsion springs so that only small manual forces are required for operation of the machine.

It is known that the bark must be removed in order to work on cut trees. Machines have been developed for this purpose, since the manual labor takes an appreciably long time and increases the costs of a working on of the cut tree. While it has been proposed before to remove the bark with a peeling iron, which had to be pushed or moved by hand, machines have been proposed which either remove the bark mechanically, or which destroy the bark by a high pressure water stream, the latter Washing away the bark so loosened from the tree. In accordance with another known device, the bark is peeled off by means of a pulling knife. Such machines are, however, rather expensive in their operation and in their manufacture, so that smaller plants perform the removal of the bark still manually for economical reasons.

It is, therefore, still a further object of the present invention, to provide a bark removing machine having a peeling knife which is light and handy, and which operates in accordance with the peeling principle. In this machine, a peeling iron, known to the skilled worker in this field, is used, though it is no longer necessary to loosen. the connection between the tree and the bark by manual force. The construction of the bark removing machine is of such nature that the known dynamic balancing principle is applied, so that the machine is not subjected to any vibration, when it is held by the operator, in spite of the reciprocating movement of the working piston and of the peeling iron. The comparatively vibrationlcss operation of the machine is brought about by a counter balancing weight piston.

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It is yet another object of the present invention, to provide a bark removing machine having a peeling knife which comprises a steel band, the ends of which are swingably mounted in rotary bearings extending parallel to the plane of the steel band.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a bark removing machine having a peeling knife, wherein the steel band comprises a band-saw blade which is mounted in a double arm the latter being connected with the bark removing machine by means of 3. connecting bolt.

It is still a particular object of the present invention to provide a bark removing machine having a peeling knife wherein the steel band is retained in longitudinal direction in a rotary bolt, and one end thereof is movably mounted, so that it can be adjusted during operation to the shape of the cut tree.

It is also a further object of the present invention to provide a bark removing machine having a peeling knife, wherein the legs of the double arm which support the steel band are swingably mounted towards each other and which legs may be secured in such manner that the distance therebetween and, thereby, the free length of the steel band is adjustable.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a bark removing machine having a peeling knife, wherein the edge of the latter disposed opposite to the cutting edge is formed in the manner of a toothing, so that the barbed like formations dig into the trunk, while the peeling knife performs a return stroke and the rod of the bark removing machine advances the entire machine in the direction of the working stroke, instead of returning the peeling knife during the backward stroke. This feature of the bark removing machine, according to the present invention, has the effect that the blow caused by the return stroke, is not transferred to the operator of the machine and further that the entire machine is moved automatically in the direction of the working stroke without any human effort on the part of the operator.

With these and other objects in view, which will become apparent in the following detailed description, the present invention will be clearly understood in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation of the machine designed in accordance with the present-invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of the machine shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a section along the lines 33 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a front elevation of one embodiment of the peeling tool;

FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the peeling tool shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a front elevation of the peeling tool shown in FIG. 4 in its operative position;

FIG. 7 is a bark removing tool with teeth arranged at the backside of it;

FIG. 8 is another embodiment of a bark removing tool with teeth arranged at the backside of it; and

FIG. 9 is a side elevation of a bark removing tool, partly in section.

Referring now to the drawings, and in particular to FIGS. 1 to 3, the driving motor 1, which may be an electro-rnotor or an internal combustion engine, operates the rod 3 over a crank drive 2, the rod 3 carrying at its free end a peeling iron 4. The bark remow'ng machine is set on the tree 9, the bark of which is to be removed, and the machine is supported by the rocking lever 5 which is turnably mounted upon the pivot 11. A torsion spring 13 urges the rocking lever 5 downwardly and thus contributes to the support of the weight of the machine.

3 The rocking lever 5 terminates into a skid shoe 6 which is connected with the rocking lever 5 by means of the pivot 12. A handle 7 and a guide rod 8 serve the purpose of holding and guiding the machine.

In order to remove the bark from the tree 9, the skid shoe 6 is set into engagement with the tree 9. By this arrangement, the torsion spring 13 is tensioned over the rocking lever 5 by the Weight of the machine and the peeling iron 4 is pressed simultaneously onto the tree 9 by the weight of the machine. Upon starting the driving motor 1, the rod 3 performs a reciprocating movement, whereby the peeling iron 4 penetrates into and below the bark and starts the peeling operation. While in accordance with known methods the operator had to exert a certain force for the removal of the bark, his operation is now limited to the movement of the machine in working direction. During such movement, longer chips of the bark are pealed off than would be possible by manual labor. The angle between the peeling iron 4 and the tree 9 may be adjusted by means of the guide rod 8 in co-operation with the rocking lever 5 and the skid shoe 6, depending upon whether the guide rod 8 is guided more downwardly or more upwardly. By this arrangement, the depth of the peeling may be adjusted and the machine will remove the bark, respectively.

The transfer of the rotating movement of a cross-wise disposed shaft 14, which is in operative connection with the driving motor 1, into the reciprocating movement of the rod 3 may be achieved (FIG. 3), by means of the drive 2, which is shown, by example, as a crank drive. In this drive, the crank shaft 15 moves as extension of the motor shaft 14 the two connecting rods 16 and 17 over the two eccentrics of the crank shaft 15'. For a dynamic balancing, the connecting rod 17 operates the rod 3, while the connecting rod 16 reciprocates a compensating counter balancing weight piston 18 in opposite direction. The compensating counter balancing weight piston 18 is determined such a manner that its mass forces work against the working jolts of the rod 3 combined with the peeling iron 4 and, thereby, the jolting and rattling of the machine is extensively reduced, so that a smooth operation of the machine is now brought about.

Referring now to FIGS. 4 to 6, still another embodiment is disclosed, wherein a connecting bolt 19 is provided, which bolt secures the bark removing tool, to the bark removing machine or which serves as a handle, or grip means, for manual operation. The connecting bolt 19 is secured to a double-arm 20, the ends of which carry the bearings 21 and 22.

As particularly shown in FIG. 5, a steel band 23 is mounted immovably at one end in the bearing 22 by means of screw bolts 24, while it is mounted intermediate its ends in the bearing 21 for longitudinal adjustment of the steel band 23, the adjustment being achieved by means of a longitudinal slot 27 disposed in the steel band 23 and a bolt 28 projecting therethrough, which slot 27 limits such longitudinal movement of the bolt 28.

The operation of the device is clearly shown in FIG. 6. If the peeling iron is disposed on top of the tree 25, it bends through, due to its own weight, and/ or the opera tional pressure, so that it engages the tree 25 for an appreciable angle. The advantage of the greater working width obtained by this embodiment, leads particularly to an appreciably increased output of the work.

The steel band 23 may be bent to assume a concave shape or a convex shape, so that also recesses in the tree 25 are easily workable.

It is of advantage to provide a whole set of peeling irons of different widths for each bark removing machine, which peeling irons may be adjusted depending upon the diameter of the tree.

A guide member of sheet metal (not shown) may be disposed between the peeling iron and the handle, which is adapted to reject the bark chips and to protect the hand of the worker.

Referring now to FIGS. 7-9 a peeling iron 4 and a bark removing tool 23' respectively, are shown with teeth and elevations 26 and 26, respectively, are arranged at the backside of the tools digging into the tree 25, caused by the backward stroke of the peeling iron 4' and, thereby, advancing the whole machine.

While I have disclosed several embodiments of the present invention, it is to be understood that these embodiments are given by example only and not in a limiting sense, the scope of the present invention being determined by the objects and the claims.

I claim:

I. A bark peeling machine comprising a housing, driving means including a driving shaft secured to said housing, a working rod, means connected with said driving shaft for reciprocating said working rod, a counterweight piston operatively connected with said driving shaft and disposed substantially diametrically opposite to said rod, additional means connected with said driving shaft for reciprocating said counter-weight piston, in opposition to the movement of said rod in order to provide a balancing of said rod, a bark peeling device secured to the free end of said rod, a rocking lever of substantially U-shape, and a pivot at each end of said lever for pivotally securing said lever to said housing, a torsion spring connecting each of said pivots with the corresponding arms of said rocking lever and urging said lever downwardly, said springs being tensioned and assuming at least a part of the weight of said machine.

2. The machine, as set forth in claim 1, wherein said bark peeling device comprises a double-armed member pivotally mounted on said rod, a steel band, one end of said steel band rigidly secured to one arm of said member and the other end of said steel band adjustably secured to the other arm of said member, in order to change the operative length of said steel band, the latter having at least one longitudinal slot and said other end of said member having at least one bolt received in the slot of said steel band to guide the latter in its longitudinal adjustment.

3. The machine, as set forth in claim 1, wherein said bark peeling device comprises a double-armed lever pivotally mounted on said rod, a steel band secured to the free ends of the arms of said double-armed lever, and means for adjusting the operative length of said steel band, in order to vary the angle of engagement between said steel band and the tree to be peeled.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,627,901 Hill May 10, 1927 2,138,862 Johnston Dec. 6, 1938 2,707,978 Falkman et al May 10, 1955 2,768,437 Ronjan et al Oct. 30, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 162,141 Sweden Feb. 11, 1958 570,310 Germany a- Feb. 14, 1933 1,150,549 France July 6, 1955 91,441 Norway Feb. 15, 1958 

